


Is this really a second chance?

by silveronthetree



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Ahsoka - E. K. Johnston, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, F/M, Mentions of Cancer, Time Travel, mentions Anakin/Padme
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2020-06-29 07:14:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19825162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveronthetree/pseuds/silveronthetree
Summary: Time Travel AU. A newly minted Fulcrum runs into Padawan Skywalker. They get a little more intimate than they ever have/will.





	Is this really a second chance?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [victoria_p (musesfool)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/musesfool/gifts).



> Happy Birthday, Victoria! I’ve been promising to write you Ahsoka/Anakin for a couple of years and never quite delivered, and your birthday was the perfect reason to finish this! I hope you like it.
> 
> Ahsoka and Anakin are both around 18 in this. The beauty of time travel.

Ahsoka’s been on this freezing cold planet for eighteen days and she hasn’t spoken to a single person. She’s used to solitude now, but when she agreed to run Bail’s intelligence network, Ahsoka imagined she’d be meeting and talking to people all the time, like she’d ended up doing on Raada. She’d been looking forward to that, but that’s not happening now. It isn’t so much that there’s no one to talk to, but it's that it might be a really bad idea to talk to the people here. The inhabitants of this planet are supposed to be simple traders, but if her intelligence is right -- and this source is usually bang on the credits -- there is something a lot more complicated going on here. A something they suspect is related to the Empire’s plans for expansion. 

Ahsoka’s never been the biggest fan of stakeouts, but she’s getting good at them now. She doesn’t have the resources she used to, so if she wants to know what’s happening, she needs to find out herself. After eighteen days of this stakeout, Ahsoka is starting to doubt the intelligence that brought her here. The traders are boring. Incredibly boring. So far all they’ve done is move things from one store to another, inventory their goods, eat and sleep. The goods are exactly what they are known for trading. There’s been minimal chatter, no major fights, and nothing that’s stood out as unusual. She sneaked into a warehouse a few days ago to check some crates, and it doesn’t seem to be a cover for smuggling. Every single thing is genuine. She's even discounted the possibility that they were being so boring it was fake, to cover an intelligence operation.

Ahsoka taps her gloved fingers on the outcrop she’s hiding behind. Is it is time to cut her losses and go? There is no evidence there’s anything odd going on and she’s sick of the cold. Sure, she’s been in colder places, but it’s still horrible and there’s a storm coming. She tugs her hood closer around her face and settles in to wait until their shift changes and they won’t notice her leave.

She's listening out for the shift change, but the thrum of an unfamiliar engine comes into range first. It isn’t one of the traders, which is probably bad news and it’s coming straight towards her. She prepares to make a discreet exit. 

Before she can leave, the noise resolves into a speeder bike which skids to a sudden halt a few hundred metres away from her. When she looks, a bundled-up figure in unfamiliar garb jumps off it and starts running towards her yelling. 

“Get down!” they shout.

She obeys the order instinctively, flattening herself to the snow. If the traders didn’t notice her because of the yelling, they’d notice the snow spraying around her. Has she made a fatal error? 

Nothing happens and she pokes her head up a little, unwilling to remain a sitting mynock. Before she can see anything, she’s Force pushed back down to the ground and moments later a body slams into her, closely followed by an enormous noise and a shockwave that makes her montrals ring. 

When she looks up there is an empty space and melted snow where the traders were.

She doesn’t feel injured but she isn’t ready to move just yet. Someone just Force pushed her. Another Jedi? She ruthlessly suppresses hope. She must be careful. 

“Are you ok?” The voice is muffled through her still ringing montrals and she tries to focus. It's hard going. 

“Yeah.” She sits up and looks at the person next to her who has probably just saved her life. If she’d been out in the open when that blast had hit, she’d have died. 

The possible Jedi pushes back their hood and goggles, revealing a very familiar pair of blue eyes. Without stopping to think, Ahsoka throws herself at him, grabbing him in a fierce embrace. 

It’s Anakin. 

Anakin!

Delight and relief fill her as she embraces him. He’s alive and he’s here and she basks in the feeling.

But something doesn’t feel right. He lets her hold on but he isn’t hugging her back and instead he shifts uncomfortably. He’s shorter and slighter and is somehow light to her senses. The swirl of darkness that has been at the edge of her consciousness every time she senses him is gone and it’s only in its absence that she identifies it. 

Reflexively she feels along their bond, forgetting that it is blunted.She wrenches herself away from him and stares, cataloguing the differences. The short hair, the younger face. It’s Anakin but it isn’t. He’s just a kid.

He says, “Hello, uh, are you okay, Miss?” He’s a little flushed, not just pink from the cold, and there is the hint of a smirk under the concern. 

“What was that?” she asks not-quite-Anakin. This isn’t the weirdest situation she’s ever been in and they’re in danger. And it’s clear that he doesn’t know her. She can figure this out later. “Where did you come from?”

“I felt you were there. We were investigating some caves and I got turned around and ran into some pirates-” there’s a question in his voice at the word pirates, “-getting ready to bomb those people," he waves at the obliterated traders. "I sensed you and I couldn’t let a fellow Jedi get hurt.” She suppresses a wince at the name thrown out so casually. “My master didn’t mention that there were any other Jedi here when we arrived.” His gestures exposes the highly visible lightsaber on his belt and she tries not to stare or think about Obi-Wan. This is getting weirder and weirder and he doesn’t seem to have any more of a clue of what’s going on than her. 

“C’mon, we need to get out of here," she says. "And you need to hide that thing.” She points at his lightsaber. “They really don’t care much for Jedi out here.” Or anywhere really, but that would require more explanation than they have time for.

He looks puzzled, but tucks it under his parka.

All she can think about is time travel. It’s the only thing that makes sense and seems slightly more plausible than multiple universes. This is definitely Anakin, but a younger and more awkward Anakin. He’s the Anakin she remembers from lightsaber tutoring as a youngling. He seems smaller and not just because she’s grown so much recently. She’s pretty sure they’re the same age right now.

“What’s your name?” she asks, as they prepare to move, to pre-empt any slips on her part. “I’m Ashla.” She feels a little sick lying to him, but if it’s time travel, her name might be familiar to him even if her face isn’t.

“Anakin Skywalker.” He doesn’t look surprised when she doesn’t react. 

A blaster bolt shoots past her ear, as they emerge from cover and run for his abandoned speeder bike. Her instincts are shouting at her to get out her lightsaber, but she’s had enough practice resisting those. That’ll get her killed faster than any poorly aimed blasters. Unfortunately, not-quite-Anakin doesn’t have any such compunction and his lightsaber is out and he drops back a little to cover them.

“You fool, don’t do that here,” she yells but he doesn’t listen.

The intensity of fire increases and Ahsoka sighs. They aren't going to make it out of here without making a production of it. So much for staying under the radar. She ignites her lightsabers and starts to block blasts. Blasts that Anakin misses. He's very good, but he's leaving more gaps than the last time she fought with Anakin. This isn't the same as fighting in sync with her battle-trained master. It feels familiar but he isn't as precise as she's used to, deflecting bolts but missing opportunities to redirect them and hit targets. 

She can't really see the pirates. Those that left their vehicles are keeping under cover of the snowdrifts and they are thick enough that the redirected blasts aren't penetrating the snow. She's having to work hard, but they fit together well, anticipating each other just enough. It's lucky that whoever these people are, and all she knows is that they aren't the Empire, aren't very precise. 

"We need to get out of here," she tells and she sees Anakin nod. 

"Think we can take them all out first?" he asks, a bright grin on his face. 

We'll have to or we're dead she thinks, but she doesn't say it aloud. She points at the speeder with two pirates on it. "Can you take that speeder out? I'll take the other." The other has five pirates. 

His only response is a leap into the speeder and she sighs again. 

They don't seem to have much artillery left, but then she hears a familiar whine and flips out of the way of a shell that would've flattened her. It came from behind a snowbank. 

Should she deal with that before the speeder? She calculates the trajectory. No, if she can get this speeder to turn enough, it'll take out the big gun. 

"Don't take the fight to them," she calls, reining Anakin back. "We need to get out of here."

Anakin is grinning. "Good hit, Ashla!" he calls, as she opens up a gap with a ricocheted blast. They are slowly retreating to their goal, the speeder bike. 

She uses her lightsaber to jam the steering straight and jumps off the speeder.

In the quiet second between Ahsoka jumping off the speeder and the crash, she looks at Anakin. She's been peripherally aware of him this whole time, but something pulls her gaze. The two pirates are down and he's running towards the last speeder and she meets his eyes as he stares at her in admiration. 

A blast from the artillery takes out Anakin's speeder and she curses. Change of plans, they need to keep the pirates' speeder intact. Who knows if reinforcements for them will arrive? 

She throws her lightsaber and it takes out the two pirates on the bike before she catches it again. The speeder still moving, but she reaches it just ahead of Anakin and jumps on, and pulls him in front of her. Any version of Anakin is going to be the best person to drive. 

It was the right decision; Anakin’s driving skills mean they leave their attackers far behind. But she can't cover everything and they take a few hits in the process. At least one makes contact, wringing out a shocked cry from Anakin. She takes charge and tells him to head to the spaceport. It’s the best place to shelter from the incoming storm. There isn’t an official Imperial presence here, and they won’t stick out like they would in the smaller settlements. 

She can barely hear him over the noise of the engine and the rising wind, but he points back to the hills in the east and she thinks he yells something about his master. 

"Shelter first," she shouts back directly into his ear. The hood of his jacket has fallen down and his padawan braid whips her in the face. Obi-Wan can take care of himself and they won't survive this storm in the open. The set of his back suggests that Anakin wants to protest but presumably the wind whipping around them and the ominous clouds convince him to listen.

She watches his face fall as they look around the spaceport. He led them there, he must have arrived here, but he’s uneasy in a way she’s never seen before. 

“I was only here a few days ago,” he says, but I don’t remember that.” He points at a new looking building with a much blockier shape than the other pod-like buildings here. She suspects that it’s Imperial built. “It can’t’ve changed that much? The caves were weird but we were only in them for a few days.” 

She wants to ask more about the caves, which must surely be the key to all this weirdness, but he’s moving awkwardly and she can smell the horribly familiar scent of blaster-charred flesh and fabric. They need to take a look at his injuries. “Where are you hurt?” she asks. When he doesn’t reply, she sighs and says, “C’mon Skywalker, we need to get somewhere to stay before the snow storm arrives.” Her montrals have been aching with the changing pressure and it’ll hit shortly. 

The room they find in a cantina's guest house is small, but private. It's nicer than she'd expect for the credits she reluctantly parts with. There’s a slightly sunken bed pallet that takes up almost all the floor with enough room for several very friendly people or two sort-of-strangers. The room’s less than sparsely furnished with only thick layers of bedding, hooks on the walls, shuttered windows and another door next to the entrance that she assumes leads to the private fresher they were promised. She's desperate to get clean. She walks around the narrow space that isn’t the bed and feels underfloor heating. It feels safe. She could almost relax here.

“We need somewhere to ride out the storm, and I didn’t miss that you’re injured. We need to take a look at that,” she tells Anakin and he stands awkwardly in the doorway as she inspects the room. “Get in here.” She ignores the strangeness of telling Anakin what to do. 

He's been silent since they reached the guest house, following her almost reluctantly. He takes a hesitant step inside and she shuts the door behind him. “I’m fine,” he says. Stubborn to a fault.

She hangs up her lightsabers near the door, so she can reach them easily.

He looks at them warily. “I’ve never seen a white lightsaber before.” He swallows. “Ashla, you are a Jedi, right?” he asks. 

She feels cold creep over her. “My master was,” she says. It’s true enough. What had Obi-Wan said? Use as much truth as you can in your lies. “But I’m not. Not now.”

He looks surprised and there’s more than a little concern in his eyes, but he doesn’t ask more. She can almost see the questions burning though his brain. Odd lightsaber colours held by someone who professes not to be a Jedi have been a warning sign for as long as she can remember. This situation is strange for her but she’s beginning to realise just how strange it must be for him. 

He gazes at her. After a while, he says thoughtfully, “You feel like you are.”

It’s oddly reassuring but Ahsoka doesn’t want to have that conversation now and she gives him a vague smile and ducks through the other door. It actually leads to a drying room but thankfully she discovers the fresher is beyond that. They both have underfloor heating and it is gloriously warm. If he’s denying he’s injured, it’s minor enough that she has enough time to clean up before treating him. Ahsoka removes her damp pack and rummages around for her medical kit. She sets it aside and rapidly removes her cold, damp clothes for the first time in days. 

Anakin stares at her as she emerges from the doorway in just her underthings with the medical kit under one arm. When she catches his eye, he ducks his head and rushes past her into the fresher.

While he's in there she busies herself setting out the medical kit. That keeps her occupied until he emerges from the fresher. Now it is her turn to stare -- not because he’s half-naked -- she’s frequently seen Anakin in far less than that, but because he has two flesh arms. That’s what makes it sink in that the Anakin she's with has really come from a time before the Clone Wars. She's been cataloguing the differences since they met, but it is this one that makes it sink in. 

He coughs and Ahsoka tears her gaze away from his arm to see him smiling. She focuses on what she should be doing and looks him over, taking note of the blaster burn on his leg and bruises all over his torso. 

“The blaster burn first,” she says. “Sit down and I’ll take a look at it.”

He obeys and sits in the space she left free on the bed area, his back against the wall, his good leg bent away from her and his injured leg stretched out. She kneels in front of him and inspects the burn on his calf. It’s small and it doesn’t look as if it’s damaged the muscle too badly. He twitches when she cleans it but doesn’t say anything. When she’s satisfied it's clean she covers it with one of her precious supply of bacta patches.

“Thanks,” he says and makes a move to get up but she rests a hand on his bare thigh to stop him. 

He freezes. 

“I’ve still got to look at those ribs. With that much bruising you could well have broken one.” His skin is warm beneath her hand, and she notices the texture of his leg hair as he twitches.

“Ashla!” he protests. “I know what that feels like and I’m fine,” he says, flushed. His breathing is a little quick and she listens hard, but doesn’t sound hesitant or wrong in any way.

She removes her hand from his thigh and he lets out a breath as he relaxes, only to inhale sharply as she puts her hands on his torso to feel his ribs. 

“Did that hurt?” she asks quickly.

He shakes his head. “You just surprised me.” 

He breathes steadily as she continues to touch him. It sounds almost as if he’s meditating, but she’s pretty sure that he’s bad enough at that, that he won’t be able to keep it up if she presses on a broken rib. He’s warm and his skin feels smooth and firm under her hands. She moves even closer to him, one knee rested between his so that she can reach around to his back as she continues her inspection.

To her relief she doesn’t find any problems, just tender bruises, but there isn’t much she can do about those. “I don’t think anything’s broken,” she tells him.

“I could’ve told you that,” he says, more than a touch of petulance in his tone.

She laughs, a genuine smile stretching her face for the first time in months. It’s a familiar reaction and it’s so very Anakin. She can think of at least three times he’s claimed that his ribs weren’t broken when they were. 

It seems to be contagious because he grins back. And she’s missed that smile so much. She throws her arms around his neck, carefully avoiding his bruises and hugs him, burying her nose near his throat. There’s that familiar smell. She knows that he isn’t quite her Anakin with all their shared history and affection, but for a moment she can pretend.

He hugs her back this time and it’s wonderful. His hands making tentative strokes over her back and his nose brushing her montrals. She's been wanting to hug Anakin since he last left her on Mandalore. Since she last saw any of her Jedi family. Since every connection within the force was torn apart. She wants to bury herself in familiarity and in family. Whenever he is from, this is still her Anakin. 

They stay like that until Ahsoka starts to feel her foot going numb and she drops down a little so she’s sitting on his good leg. They both wriggle a little until they reach a comfortable position and when they’re settled and she's relaxed in his comforting embrace, she feels him drop a soft kiss on her montrals. They’re so sensitive, and she feels the soft, unfamiliar sensation and she pushes her head towards him in encouragement. He does it again and she sighs in pleasure. It feels so good, and then he’s kissing a trail towards her face, gentle, light kisses, and she moves her face to meet him.

His lips meet hers and this is nothing she ever expected to do with Anakin, but it feels safe, warm and wonderful and she wants more. His lips are gentle and when she opens her mouth a little and he deepens the kiss, she feels tingly. It’s just the right amount of hot and damp and it doesn’t even feel awkward when she feels his tongue on her lips, and then his tongue touching her own. 

She’s always thought kissing was awkward before. Nice enough because it was good to be that close to someone she cared about, but not something she’s ever really chased. But she’s been so comfortable with Anakin for so many years, even with this not-quite-her-Anakin, this feels right. She thinks she might’ve got here with Kaeden, if she’s been able to stick around for a few years. Kissing someone you know this well is amazing.

They kiss until her jaw aches but she doesn’t want to stop, she wants to crawl into Anakin’s space and stay there. Her whole body is warm and heat pools between her thighs, and Anakin is pushing against her, and she’s touching his hair and shoulders and chest. “Mmm, Skyguy,” she whispers as they break for air. “You’re good at this.”

He raises an eyebrow, “Skyguy? Huh, I’m not sure I’ll let you call me that.” He runs a finger up her side and she giggles and squirms to escape his tickling. “But I’m glad you think I know what I’m doing because I really, really don’t.” His finger brushes the side of her breast and she pushes into it, as he continues, “I am, however, very good at improvising.” He winks at her.

“I don’t know what I’m doing either,” she admits and presses her hips closer and she feels something hard against her that must be his cock. She wants to find out everything about that part of him. She wonders when he first did this, because she’d overheard enough conversations to know that he’s had a lot more experience with sex by the time she became his Padawan. She’s pretty sure that’s not that far away for him. She can't focus enough to calculate exactly how far away it is now.

They start to kiss again and although she’s been straddling his uninjured leg since they started, now she’s aware that she’s grinding against it and it feels so good. Her wetness slides against the hairs on this thigh. In between kisses he stares at her like she’s the most amazing thing in the world. “So pretty,” he whispers reverently, pulling her close with his hands holding her arms.

Her cheeks heat and she can almost feel the connection between them, the blunted half of their bond that ends in nothing is almost reaching for him.

She can't say anything and bites his lip and he gasps into her mouth and then as she shifts forward against him, he shudders against her, gasping, his hands almost bruising her arm. When he finally stills, he releases his hold on her arm. 

Ahsoka looks down between them and there is a dark spot at the front of his shorts. She stares for a moment because she isn’t sure if what she thinks has happened has actually happened, and she puts out a hesitant finger to touch the spot. His face is suffused with blood and he keeps his eyes closed as his breathing evens out. He catches hold of the hand she used to touch his softening cock and laces his fingers through hers. 

She feels frustrated, moving slightly against his leg wanting more. Anakin opens his eyes and he presses his hand over her mound. His thumb toying with her waistband. He smiles at her a little hesitantly, and asks, “Can I?”

She nods and slips his hand inside, to where she wet and aching. 

She watches his face and he looks like he’s concentrating hard. His focused expression is one she seen while he's contemplating a tricky repair job. His fingers feel so good against her, finding places that make her squirm and sigh. It feels very different from when she does this herself. Good but she can't anticipate what he'll do next. He finds a rhythm and she feels like she’s getting closer and closer and she closes her eyes. And then he leans forward and kisses her hard and at the same time slides a finger inside where she feels empty and it's so much sensation and she comes.

When she opens her eyes she feels giddy with happiness. Anakin’s smiling at her, looking a little proud of himself. 

“Hey,” she whispers and he slides his hand down her montral and she shivers. “I’m glad I ran into you today.”

“Me too," he says. "Although I feel like I’ve met you before. It’s strange—” he trails off, shrugging.

“I don’t think you’ve really met me yet,” Ahsoka says before she’s thought it through. 

“I think I know you pretty well,” he jokes and then his brow wrinkles and she sees connections being made. Sometimes she forgets just how smart he is. "Met me _yet?"_ he whispers. He freezes. She can feel how tense he is everywhere they're still touching. "You said yet. This isn’t my time.” It isn’t a question. 

She nods. There’s no point denying it. 

Anakin’s face is frozen. “You know me and I don’t know you.” His hands tighten into fists, but the boiling anger she anticipates is dampened. He sounds almost as confused as angry. “I’ve been trying to ignore it, but since I got out of that cave there’s been something very wrong with Force.” 

She nods again. “I think you need to go back to the cave.” There’s more she should probably say, but she wants to hold onto the moment. Anakin is with her and she isn't alone in the Force.

He exhales and slowly relaxes, pulling her back into his arms. “If you know me in my future, that must mean I’m going to get back.” 

She likes that idea and lets herself unwind in his embrace. As she falls asleep she wonders what the galaxy will be like for them both tomorrow. 

end


End file.
